Tag Archives: Katie Brown

The Biomedical Sciences Program is proud to announce that Dr. Piyali Dasgupta has been awarded Marshall University’s John and Frances Rucker Graduate Advisor Award. Each year, this distinction recognizes the efforts of outstanding graduate advisors and is awarded to one graduate faculty member from each campus (Huntington and South Charleston) who has not received the award in the past five years. Of winning the award, Dr. Dasgupta says, “I am very honored. I was nominated by the students in my laboratory for being an ‘Outstanding Graduate Advisor,’ which to me is the highest of honors.” The South Charleston winner this year was Dr. Mike Cunningham.

Dr. Dasgupta is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, Physiology & Toxicology. She was first informed of the honor earlier this month by Dr. Tracy Christofero, Chair of the Graduate Council. The Graduate Council Credentialing Committee selects recipients based upon the quality of the content of letters of recommendation received in response to a request for recommendations. All graduate students, graduate alumni, and faculty may submit recommendations, and the award is open to faculty members of all graduate programs. According to Dr. Christofero, what seems to stand out to the committee are student stories expressing how professors have personally helped them. Of Dr. Dasgupta, Dr. Christofero says, “She really came out ahead of the pack. We are honored to have a fine faculty, and she has done a great job according to her students.”

At least three students who have worked with Dr. Dasgupta — Brandon Shiflett, Aaron Dom, and Katie Brown — decided to nominate her after reading the online call for submissions, and each student reports sending in a glowing letter of recommendation. As Brandon Shiflett stated without reserve in his letter of support, “Piyali’s dedication to academia and her students is evident in and out of the classroom, and she is without a doubt one of Marshall University’s greatest research assets.” In his letter, Aaron Dom says, “I could not have asked for a better mentor and boss, and I think choosing to work in her lab was one of the best decisions I have ever made.” With such enthusiastic support, it is easy to see why Dr. Dasgupta was chosen. The list of reasons students gave for nominating her is lengthy and includes her accessibility and enthusiasm as a professor, her willingness to support student research, the quality of her instruction in the lab and classroom, and the successes that she has helped her students to garner.

Dr. Dasgupta would like to express her thankfulness to the students who nominated her, of whom she says, “I am lucky to have an outstanding team of researchers working with me.” To learn more about Dr. Piyali Dasgupta and her research, please visit her faculty directory page.